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Trudeau admits Wilson-Raybould challenged him on SNC-Lavalin

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday his former justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould asked her boss last fall to clarify if he was “directing” her to make a decision in the disputed bribery prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.

Trudeau refused to say exactly what he told his former attorney general at the time, or whether he indicated his own preference to her amid a big campaign that was underway to influence the government’s decision about offering SNC-Lavalin a deal that would avoid the economic consequences of potential criminal liability.

“There were many discussions going on, which is why Jody Wilson-Raybould asked me if I was directing her or going to direct her to take a particular decision and I of course said no, that it was her decision to make and I expected her to make it,” Trudeau told reporters Friday. “I had full confidence in her role as attorney general to make the decision.”

In French, he said that at the Sept. 17 meeting, “When she asked me if I was directing her or giving her instructions in relation to this decision, I told her, ‘no, assuredly not. It’s your decision to take.’” He said he confirmed to her “it was her choice, it was her responsibility to take these decisions, and I recognized I wasn’t going to intervene or direct her in any way whatsoever to take a decision, all the while recognizing obviously that our role as a government is both to protect the rule of law and to ensure good jobs and economic growth for Canadians.”

Trudeau’s conversation with Wilson-Raybould — the only one he has said he had with her on the matter — happened Monday, Sept. 17 in Ottawa where they had “a variety of discussions,” according to his office.

That was nearly three weeks before the independent director of public prosecutions, Kathleen Roussel, on Oct. 9, 2018 rejected SNC-Lavalin’s entreaties that federal prosecutors negotiate a “remediation agreement” to settle the case.

Trudeau cited cabinet confidentiality for refusing to detail his side of the discussion. But he described a full-court press by SNC-Lavalin, and a range of individuals including the current and former premiers of Quebec, François Legault and Philippe Couillard, MPs from Quebec, and union representatives concerned about the company’s fate.

“Obviously as a government we take very seriously our responsibility of standing up for jobs, of protecting jobs, of growing the economy, of making sure that there are good jobs right across the country as there are with SNC-Lavalin, but as we do that we always need to make sure we’re standing up for the rule of law and protecting the independence of our justice system,” Trudeau told reporters at an announcement at Blackberry QNX facilities in suburban Ottawa.

When Trudeau was asked if it was possible Wilson-Raybould felt his comments as pressure, Trudeau declined a direct answer, but insisted as he has several times since allegations surfaced eight days ago that his government acted within the norms and rules in all its dealings on the matter.

The new peek into their exchanges comes just before the Commons returns next week, where Opposition MPs plan to press the government to waive all confidentiality and privileges it claims prevent any detailed disclosure of what Trudeau or his officials discussed with Wilson-Raybould.

Wilson-Raybould, who quit cabinet this week, has remained silent, neither confirming nor denying reports she resisted political pressure to direct the public prosecutor. She says she is bound by solicitor-client privilege not to divulge her past communications as the government’s lawyer.

But she has hired a former Supreme Court of Canada judge as her lawyer to advise her on what public comments she can make now that she is out.

Trudeau denounced what he called sexist and racist comments directed towards Wilson-Raybould in the aftermath of the whole affair, denied she was shuffled out of her job as attorney-general because she didn’t speak French, as the Liberal chair of the Commons justice committee speculated, and refused to say exactly why he moved her, only that “there are always a wide range of factors that go into making that decision.”

“If Scott Brison had not stepped down from cabinet, Jody Wilson-Raybould would still be minister of justice and attorney general.”

Trudeau again shifted blame onto Wilson-Raybould, as he has since Tuesday, saying it was her responsibility to tell him if she felt anyone had acted inappropriately in discussions with her.

“If the minister or anyone else felt undue pressure or felt that we were not living up to our own high standards of defence of the rule of law and our judicial system and judicial independence, it was their responsibility to come forward and at no time in the fall did the former attorney general come forward to me.”

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When reporters asked the prime minister what exactly Wilson-Raybould gave as her reason for handing in her resignation on Monday night, Trudeau also dodged a direct answer. “She made her decision, I accept her decision even if I do not entirely understand it.”

SNC-Lavalin, a Quebec-headquartered engineering and construction company with some 50,000 employees worldwide, is charged under the Corruption of Foreign Officials Act with bribery, and under the Criminal Code with fraud. The charges are in connection with alleged payments by former company officials to the former Libyan regime of Muammar Gadaffi between 2001 and 2011.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault has made no secret publicly of his preference for a settlement of the SNC-Lavalin charges.

Legault also made that case privately to Trudeau, in at least two official meetings, according to a senior Canadian government official who declined to discuss the content of their discussions.

The first was in Yerevan, Armenia where they attended the summit of La Francophonie. Trudeau and Legault travelled together on a Canadian Forces plane to a summit occurring the same week the public prosecutor rejected SNC-Lavalin’s request for a remediation agreement to settle the charges.

Legault raised the plight of the Quebec company with Trudeau in January when they met in Sherbrooke on the sidelines of a federal cabinet retreat, according to the federal official. Legault’s spokesperson Valérie Noel-Létourneau told the Star that in fact they spoke about the matter “at least three times,” including at the first ministers’ meeting in Montreal in December.

She said the Quebec premier has advocated a consistent position on SNC-Lavalin, that there should be a “quick resolution that is legal under Canadian law.”

Legault’s spokesperson declined to reveal what Trudeau said in reply however she said the premier “asked M. Trudeau to make sure this situation is settled as quickly as possible.”

“Mr. Legault has said that SNC-Lavalin is a very important company for Quebec and its economy. SNC-Lavalin provides thousands of well-paid jobs and it’s a priority to protect those jobs.”

The company denies guilt and says the two employees acted without its knowledge or consent. It wants to agree to a heavy fine, corporate reforms (which it’s already implemented) and a strict oversight regime but says Ottawa should agree to what’s called a “deferred prosecution.” It’s a new legal regime that would spare the company a criminal conviction which could lead to it being blacklisted from federal contracts. The agreement would have to be approved by a court and if the company failed to comply with it, the prosecution could be recommenced.

However when it comes to cases where an organization is charged with an offence under section three or four of the Corruption of Foreign Officials Act, as SNC-Lavalin is, the director of public prosecutions “must not” consider “national economic interest” as a factor.

But national economic interest is precisely the argument many, including Legault, are making to spare SNC-Lavalin the consequences of potential criminal liability.

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